Proverbs 17:17
"17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity."
A true friend loves, shares, encourages, and is selfless. A false friend is one who takes without gratitude and does not reciprocate. The very least any friend can do is be present with words of kindness. Their presence alone, even just a phone call to encourage is enough sometimes.
"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. / For if one falls down, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to help him up! / Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? ."
We use the term "friend" so loosely these days that our culture has coined a new word recently, which is; "frenemy", meaning someone who is a part of our inner circle but is a troublemaker without empathy toward others, these people act more like enemies.
1 John 3:16-18
By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. / If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him? / Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.
Let's remember that this passage about love and service to others is for everyone. If we encounter someone who says they are a Christian but treats others with indifference and feels free to ask for things regularly without gratitude and who seems to disappear when others are in need of support, we cannot count that person as a friend.
In relationships like this, it is best to ask God if we are enabling someone to be lazy in their relationships while sucking the life out of others, by continuing ask for help but never give it.
Love demands that we are emotionally and Spiritually present for others even if we cannot afford financial support.
Friendship is by its very nature reciprocal, unless there is a good reason it cannot be so because of illness or poverty. We are to give without expecting anything in return, while this is true it does not mean that we are to allow those to expect resources when they don't need it.
We see God's kind of love and friendship in the story of Ruth. She wanted to follow Naomi because of her love for her.
Ruth 1:16-17
"But Ruth replied: “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. / Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”
David and Jonathan were another good example of a deep friendship!
1 Samuel 18:3 " 3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul."
One of the demonstrations of love is a deep and abiding concern for whatever was going on in the life of our friend. Our door is always open to a friend, our heart feels what they feel and care about what they care about. This kind of love among friends should be stronger in those who love Christ. Christ is the bond between these kinds of friends, He is the link between the two, an eternal link.
Friendship is taken far too lightly in our day, we call everyone a friend just by knowing them. Friendship God's way is a deeper walk, a deeper encounter and a blessing to both.
This is not to say that we always give when asked or that we only give to friends, it just means that we need the discernment of the Holy Spirit to sort out when we should give and when we should withhold.
Proverbs 27:10: "Do not forsake your friend".
A friend who disappears when we are in need of encouragement is one who disobeys God command to be loyal to our friends.
Proverbs 19:4: "Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend".
Often we see friends vanish when we are in hardship or physical ill-health. They only want to be around when there are good times. These are not true friends, we know we can't count on them in time of need. True friends will be there for us and we will be there for them.
John 15:13: "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends"
God has not called very many of us to die physically for our friends, but we can die daily to self as we live out our loyalty.
Amos 3:3: "Can two walk together, except they are agreed?"
The answer to this question is, "no", two cannot walk together unless both are agreed and loyal.
Here is what love looks like between true friends:
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
"4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant.
5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered,
6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
2 Corinthians 9:7 "Each one must do just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
